Unconventional
by Moiranne Rose
Summary: Challenge from a friend: A chance encounter with an unexpected person under the Plate leads Reno to discover more about his boss than he'd expected. Implied sexual situations and prostitution.


**Challenge from a friend: Quote "I want a RenoOC oneshot, that has slight RenoTseng only at the end. And I want it not to be a silly childhood friend, and as little fluff as possible. More like someone he'd meet on the streets and hook up with after some alcohol. Try something different for a change, you boring person. Not angst AGAIN!" Unquote.**

**Title: Unconventional**

**Summary: Challenge from a friend: A chance encounter under the Plate leads Reno to discover more about his boss than he'd expected. And all the unconventional things that come with it. Implied sexual situations. RenoOC, RenoTseng if you squint hard.**

* * *

Reno stubbed out his cigarette against a faded brick wall as he walked down the darkened streets under the plates. The darkness lifted as he found himself bathed in some kind of neon light of a seedy hotel that stood in front of him. He almost smiled. He knew this place all too well. The slums had been his home for years, he knew every part of it. But now with his new job restrictions, he found new additions to the low buildings, unfamiliar.

Pushing through the crowd of swaggering drunks and overly-promiscuous females, he moved towards his destination. A bar, hardly visited by ShinRa executives, instead filled with people who accepted him, his hair, and his gil into their crowd. The regular blast of music pounded his eardrums in welcome as he made his way to the counter.

Somewhere between the time where he had gotten his beer and him finishing it, he felt someone slide into the seat next to him. He turned to see a girl, about his age, sipping an elaborate cocktail. The plunging neck line, coupled with a miniskirt and a leather jacket that only reached till half her back, left no other conclusion about her line of work.

But it wasn't her clothing, enhanced with the dancing lights, that made him do a double-take on her. It was her features. Her cropped brown hair highlighted with shades of blue, her lips an unnatural blue of lipstick, eyes darkened with mascara, and eyes of piercing indigo. This was a break from the regular red lips and pink eyeshadow.

"Hey." No rush, with practiced grace, she smoothly addressed him.

He didn't shy away from her. He was familiar with this. It wasn't like he hadn't bedded with a girl like her before. But there was something disconcertingly familiar about her eyes that burned as they set their gaze on him.

"...Hey." He copied.

"You here often?" Her casual conversation punctuated with the relinquishing of the finished cocktail for another, ice cubes tinkling merrily.

"Yeah." He drank a gulp of his drink and felt the rush and tang of the alcohol burning down his throat.

Her lips upturned into a smile. No, it wasn't a smile as much as it was a smirk.

"You ShinRa?"

He turned around. How did she guess? Then he remembered that he still wore the customary collar pin Rufus had made compulsory to wear. He felt his face burn slightly as he hastily took it off and stuffed it in his pocket.

"Ain't nothing to be ashamed of! You just got a ticket out of this life!" Her tone was almost envious, none of the fear that plagued those who realized his employment.

"You're not...scared?" His voice was incredulous.

She laughed.

"Scared? Of what? You gonna pull out some gun and kill me? Even you ShinRa people have some decorum."

This was a first. The first person who hadn't run for their lives at the sound of ShinRa, instead laughing lightly. As if she didn't care about what he worked as, or under who.

"You're not against ShinRa?"

"Nah, I'm against ShinRa sure! But it provides me with most of my customers, so I can't complain." She drew out a cigarette from her jacket pocket, and lit it, inhaling the gray fumes with relish.

She turned to him again, and her eyes sent a unexplainable chill down his spine at the familiarity of its gaze. That was one thing he would never forget.

"You wanna try me?"

* * *

His alcohol-ridden mind hadn't caught up with his half-drunk body. He was now in some room, of some motel, with a women he hardly knew who had eyes that damn near freaked him out, and to top off the whole incredulity of the situation, he was kissing her like his life depended on it.

Her skillful fingers threw off his jacket immediately and had his hair out of its hairtie in the next moment. Then she broke away, hardly panting, while he gasped for air after the passionate, oxygen-consuming liplock. It was normally the other way around.

"You got some time you need to get back by?"

He stopped, and his mind kicked back into action. Wasn't often his mind was this mixed-up. He vaguely remembered the previous night's mission, and remembered that he'd screwed up something or another, and so situation demanded that he and Tseng had to go down again to clear up his mess. Same time, same place, do not be late. Tseng's words rang in his ears even at this point. That would mean...

"Midnight."

"Oh?" She said, eyebrows raising slightly. "The guy last night, he had to go off at the same time too."

"Really?" His mind was too fuzzed to think about anything much, so he declined to ask who. Probably some SOLDIER newbie with late-night training.

"Yeah. In a damn rush, I might add. Luckily, you're more relaxed..." Her voice trailed off. "What's your name?" She asked out of the blue.

For a moment, he contemplated a fake name, as he had disclosed in all his other liaisons with ladies, but decided against it. Anyway, it wasn't like she'd care.

"Reno."

She smiled, appreciating the aptness of the name, before silencing off any other questions with another bewitching, searing kiss. But it was hardly loving, which made it seem so different, for some reason.

* * *

"Hey. Hey you, Reno, wake up."

He had the vague impression of his mother's plaid skirt and her hand, hard as a bedslat.

"Fifteen more minutes, Ma..." He groaned and turned over. He received a joggling smack to the side of his head.

"I ain't no 'Ma'! I don't think I'm as old as _you _even!"

His eyes opened with a bang. Not to see an irate mother, but instead the same girl, dressed again, with hands akimbo. Her eyes, uncomfortably and wrathfully, glared at him.

"Whazzatime?" He asked, his speech impediment made understandable by his rude awakening.

"I'm gonna pretend I understood that. It's 11:30 pm. And you said you needed to reach there by..."

He sat bolt upright. Damn! If he was late, then he wouldn't just have to worry about an angry Tseng, it would also be a vitually non-existent paycheck. His head throbbed. Bloody hangover. The lights outside the window made it worse. Then, all of a sudden, a hand, with fingernails of blue, produced a pair of life-saving (or in this case, head-saving) aspirins. He accepted gratefully.

"Thanks, umm...who are you?"

She smiled as she handed him a glass of water to flush it down.

"Julia."

"Well, thank you Julia. Why do you have them on you?"

She laughed her unique laughter, the sound the only thing other than the honking of the cars in the streets below.

"I deal with this stuff all the time. Part of the Job Requirements. Hey, who's Tseng?"

"Huh? How'd you know him?" Reno said, his headache beginning to lift.

"Oh, you've got a message from him on your phone. Who is he?"

He looked to his PHS to see the screen lit up and proudly displaying that he had one message, courtesy of his boss. Flipping it open, he swore.

"I'd be guessing someone important?"

He threw on the rest of his clothes, and started to head out of the door. As his hand rested on the doorknob, he half expected her to demand payment. He felt a hand on his shoulder, a slight kiss on his cheek and a voice whispering,

"I've already taken some from your wallet. And you better hurry. Won't want to leave the boss waiting."

He opened the door and left, a pair of knowing, laughing dark eyes following him, without even questioning how she'd known that.

* * *

After the mission, he dragged his sorry ass towards his quarters. At least this time round, he had taken down the worms that had been inhabiting the Slum Redevelopment Areas. Of course Tseng didn't help at all, except to offer to take the responsibility of the report. He was more than glad to accept then. But now, his arms and back were hurting and he faintly smelled like frazzling electricity and singed clothing. Curse you Tseng, he muttered under his breath as he fished for his keycard from his pocket.

A buzz of his PHS stopped his search. Taking it out, he observed the name on the screen. What had he forgotten this time? Rolling his eyes, he flipped it open and answered.

"Yeah, Tseng?"

The response was not conventional in the slightest. In fact, the request his boss made of him was slightly discomfiting.

"Can you come over with your keycard? I seem to have misplaced mine, and I think all the ShinRa locks are the same..."

"Uhh..." What was there to do but agree? Even when you're aching all over. "Sure. See you in five minutes."

Click.

The abrupt putting down of the phone brought him back to earth. That was so..._Tseng_ to do something like that and not say a bloody thank you. He mumbled unintelligible curses as he made his way back to the elevators.

A five minute journey upwards had him walking onto the level reserved for all the bosses of the place. All the SOLDIER 1st classes (except Sephiroth, he had his own quarters on the top level) and the heads-of-department all resided here. He knew he should have been intimidated, but intimidation slid of him easily like oil on glass.

He noticed his dark-haired superior waiting impatiently outside the door of his apartment, distastefully taking note of his tardiness with his holier-than-thou attitude setting Reno's rage meter to the max. But he hid it well and brandished the keycard in a huffy anger. His boss merely passed it off as "Reno's immaturity" as he flashed the card and passed it back.

Just before Reno demanded acknowledgment, a short lady with blonde hair ran up to them. The two men turned to see the regular front desk secretary holding out a small rectangular object with a piece of notepaper wrapped round it.

"Some girl dropped it off for you, sir."

Her voice warbled and dragged off. The blonde seemed scared of venturing into this level and, after concluding it was safe to leave, fairly _flew_ down the corridor and into the lift again. The ding as the door closed left them alone in the corridor again.

Tseng curiously, if that was the correct expression to be read off unfathomable eyes, opened the notepaper and abruptly, his lost keycard fell out. Mako-enhanced reflexes caught it before it hit the carpeted floor. Then he contemplated the note, his eyes widened, and turning on his heel, in the same moment, crumpling the small slip of paper, and went into his apartment, effectively closing the door on his subordinate.

Stooping to pick up the fallen paper, Reno opened it carefully and then his jaw dropped like it hadn't dropped in a long time.

The note read,

_Hey Tseng,_

_Left this with me yesterday._

_Love,_

_Julia_

* * *

**A/N: So maybe it wasn't so RenoTseng after all. Well, though I personally think that this should pass off as a T fanfiction, to play safe, I rated it M. I must say, this was fun to write, so lots of thanks to my dear friend for asking me to write this.**

**And I'm so sorry to all those people who were hoping for angst. SORRY! I'll angst out a sequel if you wish.**

**Moiranne Rose (still not begging)**


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